I'm Throwing in the towel...

NorazDad

NorazDad
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Dudes, I dropped both the intake and exhaust valves on the left side Sunday in front of a thousand HD bikers. Got jazzed pretty bad. Got home, loaded up the rack, got her and got her home. Tore her apart in Monday and the following pictures I what I saw.
 

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Dudes, I dropped both the intake and exhaust valves on the left side Sunday in front of a thousand HD bikers. Got jazzed pretty bad. Got home, loaded up the rack, got her and got her home. Tore her apart in Monday and the following pictures I what I saw.
 

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I want advice on how to part her out. I'm done. I have several ignition systems. OEM parts. All switches and relays. Oh and a half an engine that needs a whole new top end. A titled frame. Two great K70's on eighteen inch rims. Hugh's later Pma Cdi with a mosfet. New battery. Oil cooler., etc
What's the best way to offer it to someone who know what he's getting and wants it?
Thanks,
Rob
 
Make up a story about how you saved the life of the hd rider whose bike was on fire. After he ran off the road, to make it sound more realistic
 
What a bummer!

There MAY be someone nearby who has.....several engines in reasonable shape.

Think FWB - Norazdad - gggGo north to find what you need.....;)
 
I had about 300 miles on mine when a wristpin circlip failed. Gouged the cylinder wall and jammed the rings on the piston. It's taken about 6 months but I finally sent the cylinder off to Hoos for a 700 kit. These are vintage bikes and things will break, especially if you hotrod it. They take more maintenance, and generally need some tinkering.

Are you sure it wasn't 1 valve that failed and the broken head took the other 1? Are the springs and keepers still in place? Could a valve have stuck, or did it get overrevved? Lots of things go into a failure. Years back I had a duc 748, 1 valve broke in the middle of the guide and when it dropped it took the other 3 valves with it, after punching a hole into the waterjacket. Ended up with an 853 big bore and luckily I had spare heads because it was easier to adjust valves on the bench and swap heads.
 
The crazy thing is that the valve shear occurred as I was pulling out at an intersection. Put it in gear and PING, tinkle tinkle. I was very happy that it didn't occur at speed. This happened once before on the right side with an exhaust valve. OEM. I rebuilt with Mike's SS valves and all was good for a few thousand miles. A friend and mechanic informed me that Mike's SS valves are three piece welded or whatever. No overrevving. Never took it much over 4500/65 mph. Yes, the stems are still in the keepers. Thanks for asking.
 
The crazy thing is that the valve shear occurred as I was pulling out at an intersection. Put it in gear and PING, tinkle tinkle. I was very happy that it didn't occur at speed. This happened once before on the right side with an exhaust valve. OEM. I rebuilt with Mike's SS valves and all was good for a few thousand miles. A friend and mechanic informed me that Mike's SS valves are three piece welded or whatever. No overrevving. Never took it much over 4500/65 mph. Yes, the stems are still in the keepers. Thanks for asking.

I have warned members several times about Mikes XS valves being substandard in quality other wise AKA "JUNK ",valve heads popping off,etc. Sorry you had to experience this top end failure but it will eventually bite you installing inferior parts. Don't give up on it just rebuild the top end with Kibblewhite valves,yes they're not cheap but you get what you pay for or go on ebay and buy two Virago 700 or 750 heads ,get the valves heads cut down and refaced to stock Xs valve dimensions and install higher quality valve springs to avoid valve bounze.
 
It's time to start clarifying what the current owners of Mikes XS are selling. The original
Mikes never sold anything from China except for some brake stuff that was made for Japanese
and Euro bike makers. I inquired about the valves and All production was one piece which were
made by electrical induction process. It's been 10 years since Mike sold and the self appointed
experts are making statements based on not knowing anything. The new upcoming site is using
Mike and Heidens info and it would be good if the forum could test the products and sources instead
of some false info or 10 to 20 year old grudge that a few members have. The current Mikes owners
have increased the prices to the max and bought parts from anyone who will give a cheap, cheap price.
Technical Knowledge is out the window and cheap, cheap, cheap is the ONLY determining factor.
Mike said that in the past some members of the old garage bad mouthed new products even before any were sold.
Mike said he once sold the Entire product line of Kibblewhite valve train parts , it was good but not that good
and all items were expensive and slow to sell. There is No such thing as a 650 parts factory in Japan or Taiwan
and all items are made to order in large quantities only. It's strange that you can get an entire production run sold and
never have a return or complaint except from the usual " experts " It costs about the same to custom produce
a good part as it does to produce a bad part so why would you do that - Answer - You have No technical
credentials or you just want the lowest possible price. I once worked at a Yamaha shop that sold a 77 650 to a Greek
guy who blew it up. Turns out that he laid it down and it couldn't take the over rev's. This was not revealed until
the guy first visited a number of times with his entire extended family. There is always more to the story
and everyone wants to blow stuff up, get a refund or free stuff from the supplier. Thanks Wallmart !
 
i had a similar thing happen 3 weeks ago 2 bent valves and a stuffed guide, was going to sell it, had a beer or two, then i looked at a bike importer breakers on ebay and got a really good complete head even the valve tops had no wear, no doubt the bike would have come to the UK from the USA, so i cleaned and stripped it, lapped in the valves new stem seals, assembled it all, gave it a cold compression test 150psi on both cylinders, back in the bike started 2nd kick, this weekend i took her out for a run and it run lovely, in fact the best it has ever run, so maybe yours is worth the work.
 
Second occurence of failure on those very high quality SS valves in three weeks; gosh, what a remarkable coincidence! So I'm a little confused as to what's being asserted here by our resident shill for Mike and Jerry. Is it being claimed that the failures are due to members' assembly errors or abuse, that they're liars, that there's not a history of failure of those same parts documented on this site? More bluff and guff....
 
Like I said Mr. World expert - What is the current owners of Mikes selling ? Where are they made ?
Shill ? for real experts working for factory race departments and mechanics and engineers with decades
of training and experience . You just want to tar everyone with your own brush as you have no qualifications
for the " Expert " opinions you give. It's time for real information about what's for sale is given instead of
speculation and false assertions. Guessing is of no help to anyone. You ruined and dominated the " Garage " site
and now have moved on to this site. There are people here who have real talent and knowledge and you just think
you know and like to hear yourself..
 
Two failures in three weeks. Go ahead: rant, misrepresent history (I was there when 650 Rider started, by the way), spout generalizations, name drop, and blame the victims by implication. You're offering nothing but empty assertions, and the part failures are bald fact.
 
Jim and Gary ,I'm gonna keep this simple and civil as I'm sick and tired of 650trader trolling accusing me of making false accusations regarding
MIkesXS substandard engine products. I know exactly what I'm talking about as I've seen these engine failures first hand and I know
when they occurred and when I began warning members of these defective parts, some people needs to fact check themselves what they preach before accusing someone of giving false information. There has never been any guessing on my behalf,just stating the facts or bashing a product.
Unlike 650trader,they are members on this forum with far more talent, experience and are far more knowledgeable when it comes to wrenching on
the XS650,so with that said please delete my account as I'm done with the forum.
 
,so with that said please delete my account as I'm done with the forum.
Hate to see you leave, I've always enjoyed your posts.
As someone said in another post today sometimes it's best to step away for a few days, drink a few beers and then think about it.
 
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